5 insider tips for understanding the buying brain to win business

Understanding the buying brain is the secret to engaging prospects and reducing friction in the sales process to boost win rates. The more you know about the nuanced path your prospects walk, as they move from the point where your offering is nary a twinkle in their eye to the moment when they’re signing off on your proposal, the easier it will be to convince them that your solution is the answer to their problem. 

With the pandemic throwing a wrench into the traditional sales process this past year by forcing a move to remote selling and marketing, getting into the heads of your customers to better understand their buying journey in order to close revenue each month has become that much more challenging.  

With sales velocity and win rates top of mind, we spoke to a sales and marketing expert who truly understands the buying brain. As the Chief Engagement Officer at Neural Impact, Mark Stuyt shared his insider advice to help tackle sticky areas in your sales process that may be impeding your ability to win business. 

1. Ask yourself the following questions: 
   

   Are you talking to the right people? Are you at the right altitude?

   Think about who you bring into the discussion. Every small transactional deal will have a “How” stakeholder and a “Why” stakeholder—and deals over $50K typically bring in more “What” stakeholders.  

   Are the right players at the table? Don’t waste precious time and resources engaging with the wrong people.  
   
   • “What” stakeholder = Technical/IT role 

   • “How” stakeholder = Operational User

   • “Why” stakeholder = Business Decision Maker

   • Every complex deal should involve a VP of Sales, Owner, or other executive engagement, even in a small transaction

2. Are you taking advantage of the Primacy and Recency Effect?
   

   You win deals at the beginning, and at the end, of the prospect’s buying journey—never in the middle. 
   
   Have you clearly articulated the pain, the risk, and the project impact to your buying committee at both the beginning and the end of your sales process Nobody likes proposal pricing surprises; don’t be that guy (or gal)!

3. Are you educating or selling?
   

   Specialization is a useful tactic for engaging prospects and building relationships. By specializing by industry, by buying segment (e.g., SMB vs. enterprise), or by product/solution, you can educate prospects and provide insights into their challenges, instead of merely servicing the buying cycle.
   
   Teaching your prospect something new that you learned working with similar clients helps establish you as a trusted advisor and a partner in their success—a great step towards winning the business.

4. Do you reinvent the wheel for every deal?
   

   Repeat after me: ALL content that accelerates the sales cycle should be standardized and shared. Why waste precious time and resources starting from square one for every prospect?  
   
   Standardized content accessible to all team members in one place (e.g., alignment emails, demonstration plans, highlight videos, Q&A, proposal content) can be optimized for specific industry use case scenarios—giving you more time to spend on revenue-generating activities and keeping you one step ahead of your competition. 

5. Does your RFP response and proposal creation process hum like a well-oiled machine?  

   

   Get good—really good—at responding to RFPs. And make sure you have a robust, streamlined proposal management process. It may not be sexy but if your RFP responses are unstructured, confusing, or sloppy, you won’t even get your foot in the door. 
   
   An ace up your sleeve when responding to RFPs is to create an emotional arc in your business-critical documents that articulates your prospects’ business challenges and current-state operating metrics. By clearly communicating business value, industry awareness, and competency while demonstrating that you can solve their problems in an expedited way, you’ll be well on your way to closing the sale.  

To learn how Qorus can transform your RFP response process to accelerate your sales cycle and boost win rates, check out the demo below.